- Malaysian women explore how ICTs can help end violence against women

Malaysian women explore how ICTs can help end violence against women

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By Persantuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (Empower) for APC WNSP

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, 29 November 2010

From stop-animation to digital recordings and interactive websites; discussions about abortion and reproductive rights to government legislation regarding violence against women; women and their organisations will learn to use ICTs in order to prevent the spread of violence against women. Five innovative projects that work with women and ICTs will receive funding through the APC women’s programme’s Take Back the Tech! to end violence against women project.

TAKEBACKTHETECH! FUNDWINNERS IN MALAYSIAWomen’s Aid Organisation (WAO) is organising a three-day social media training to teach women in Malaysia how to use social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, interactive websites and increase their skills with other tools such as email in order to build awareness around violence against women. They will also be working on an English-language brochure “Be safe online and offline” and tips on how to make complaints for victims of ICTVAW.

Perak Women for Women Society (PWW) is working with youth, focusing on building awareness and advocacy on premarital teenage pregnancy and sexual harassment through ICTs. Working with youth volunteers from local schools and colleagues, members of PWW and other NGOs, PWW will host a two-day capacity-building workshop where they will develop an audio-visual presentation such as a video or digital recording to use in campaigns to end violence against women.

Stop Motion Project, which is also known as frame-by-frame, an animation technique in which the image of an object is manipulated so that it appears to move on its own (such as clay-mation). The stop motion project seeks to expose government efforts regarding violence against women through four 30 to 60 second stop-motion videos. Stop Motion Project will be creating ‘pockets of awareness’ as its three videos will be hosted on existing online communities, portals, and websites. The three stop motion videos will highlight domestic violence, verbal violence, and the use of gender-segregation as a solution to sexual violence.

Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance Malaysia (RRAAM) is holding a two-day workshop for women’s organisations that will come from as far as Penang and East Malaysia. The women will learn how to document their stories, and will talk about abortion in Malaysia. The women will write various stories using technology, and will later be posted to Facebook at the discretion of the writers.

Lina Soo will run a two-day seminar called “Digital dangers: ICT & violence against women and girls”, for women and girls of Sarawak, human rights activists, media, academia and concerned citizens. The ICT training will cover basic ICT skills such as creating mailing lists, databases, and blogs and basic ICT use, which will focus on online security and cyber-stalking. Women will also learn more about how to use ICTs within their organisations to further women’s rights.

The Take Back the Tech! fund is a part of the APC women’s programme Take Back the Tech! to end violence against women project, which falls under the APC’s work towards achieving the third Millennium Development Goal on equality for women. A total of $20 000 dollars have been disbursed to twelve country partners for redistribution to local and grassroots organisations that are working with women and ICTs.